Nintendo 64 Mario Kart 64, launched in 1996/1997 for the Nintendo 64, was a vast improvement from the SNES original. It moved the series to polygon-based true 3D computer graphics for track design, allowing for track features that were not possible with Mode 7, such as bridges, walls, pits, and elevation changes; however, the characters and items remain 2D pre-rendered sprites. Other new additions include digital voice acting, 4-player support, the modern character weight classification system, Mirror mode, ghost data for Time Trial courses, and a new item called the Spiny Shell which targets and attacks the player in the lead. The game features 16 normal race courses, as well as four battle courses. Though there are still eight playable characters, two new characters are introduced: Wario (replacing Koopa Troopa) and Donkey Kong (replacing Donkey Kong Jr.), both of whom have reappeared throughout the series.

As Mega Man defeats each of the Robot Masters, he finds capsules of the strange energy Dr. Wily took from the island. When he returns to the lab, he gives the samples to Dr. Light for study, but the robot he found earlier breaks free and heads out to the desert. Mega Man goes after him and briefly fights him, but realizes that his opponent is holding back. Before he can consider it further, the robot flees and Proto Man appears, telling him that Wily's new headquarters is up ahead.

In the first Mega Man game, Mega Man may have been designed to fit in with the impotency order, as he takes 10 units of damage from both the Ice Slasher and Thunder Beam. Mega Man takes far less damage from these weapons in the PSP remake, Mega Man Powered Up, as well as other games those weapons appear, like Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters.

However, Wily's frequent false repentances have become a constant frustration to Mega Man who appears to developing less patience with him, something that came to a head in the course of Mega Man 7 where he contemplated killing him, though ultimately decided against it. He further pointed out Wily's previous false repentances at the end of Mega Man 9, showing his diminishing patience, however he nonetheless assists him when he becomes ill in Mega Man 10.

One of the most common and familiar systems that determines character growth is the job system, a class-based system where players assign characters a job, choosing from series staples such as Black Mage, White Mage, Monk, Thief and Warrior, among many. The character's job determines their base abilities and the stats gained. Throughout earlier games, this was often through experience, though Final Fantasy V introduced ability points as a separate system where the experience would increase a level independent of the job, and the ability points likewise accumulated from battles are used to grow the job's abilities. Many games featuring the job system allow the player to switch the jobs around to learn new abilities or face new enemies, though some, such as the original Final Fantasy, stick the job as fundamental to the character. Similarly, games such as Final Fantasy IX, do not have named job systems, but the characters have defined roles similar to the job system with pre-determined abilities they can learn.

When Nintendo revealed the GameCube on August 24, 2000, the day before Nintendo's SpaceWorld 2000 exposition,[79] a software demonstration showed a realistically styled real-time duel between Ganondorf and Link. Fans and the media speculated that the battle might be from a Zelda game in development.[80] At Spaceworld 2001, Nintendo showed a cel-shaded Zelda game, later released as The Wind Waker in December 2002. Due to poor reception, nothing further was shown until a playable demonstration was ready. Miyamoto felt The Wind Waker would "extend Zelda's reach to all ages".[81][82] The gameplay centres on controlling wind with a baton called the "Wind Waker" and sailing a small boat around an island-filled ocean, retaining similar gameplay mechanics as the previous 3D games in the series.

Which is kind of a shame. Because while the ability to slow down time is legitimately transformative—especially once you’ve picked up a few upgrades, allowing Mega Man to move at his normal speed while the rest of the world crawls along in digital molasses—it doesn’t change the fact that “biggest alterations to the Mega Man formula” hasn’t been a very competitive field in decades. A little extra bite might have knocked something interesting loose here, a different tone for a team that’s grown too comfortable playing a single note. On a fundamental level, these are games about learning and exploiting patterns, and despite a few flashes of brilliance, Capcom seems just as trapped in one of its own. The times have changed. Gaming has changed. Mega Man hasn’t.
The Legends series concluded with only two main games and a spin-off starring mainstay antagonist Tron Bonne before being discontinued. Unlike Battle Network and Zero, the final game in the series does not resolve the storyline. A continuation to the Legends series has become an oft-requested game among many Capcom and Mega Man fans. A third game was once under development for the Nintendo 3DS, but on July 17, 2011, Capcom cancelled the project saying it did not meet certain requirements. This decision was met with criticism from fans and gaming news outlets.[3][4]